Underground+Railroad

=Escape on the Underground Railroad= Lindsey Nettels- lnettels@gmail.com



Instructional Objective
Students will have the chance to reinforce what they have already learned about slavery and the underground railroad by playing this game. The game will reiterate content that was learned by studying California Social Science Standard 8.7.2- Trace the origins and development of slavery; it effect on black Americans and on the region's political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identity the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it. It will also go over standard 8.9.1- Describe the early leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas).

Learners & Context of Use
This game is designed for eighth grade social studies students who are studying slavery. Typically, students are especially interested in the slavery and the Underground Railroad, so they are motivated to learn about this content. In terms of usage, I would have my students play this game in order to review for a test that covers the material that is included. I would not need to make any accommodations in my classroom in order to have students play this game other than moving desks around so that they were in groups of four. This game would be designed to help students review for a test, so I do not believe I would have them play it more than once. Prior to playing this particular game, students would spend three weeks studying this content through lecture, activities, and projects. After playing this game and a jeopardy review game I have students play, students would then take a test based upon the content covered in class and in the game.

Competing Products
There were a few different board games I found. One was called, " A Game About The Pennsylvania Underground Railroad 1820 to 1870," created by Mayer Foner. It had students competing to get to freedom along the Underground Railroad, but it focused on spots specifically in Pennsylvania. Thus, the game is similar to mine in that players are competing to get to freedom; however, my game covers a much greater area of content.

Another game I found is called, "The Underground Railroad" by Chatham Hill Games. It has students competing to get to freedom, and it also has students listen to actual songs for clues. I could not get more specific information for this game though.

**Object of the Game**
The goal of my game is to be the first pair of players to reach Canada.

Content Analysis
Board Game Content Analysis

Game Materials
In this game, people would find the following objects:
 * a board- it will be of the route slaves followed on the Underground Railroad [[image:Picture_17.png width="291" height="452" align="center" caption="Game Board"]]

[|Download the Underground Railroad trivia cards and safe house cards.doc]
 * Trivia Cards- players are required to answer a question correctly in order to roll the dice. Each of these trivia cards would have questions that would review content covered about slavery and the Underground Railroad in order to help students prepare for a test.
 * Safehouse Cards- players have to draw one of these each time they end up in a safehouse to see whether or not they are awarded a prize or are injured
 * pawns- players would use figurines of famous slaves that managed to escape such as Henry "Box" Brown
 * a six-sided dice

Time Required
The time required to set up this game would only be a minute. I would expect the game to take about twenty to thirty minutes to play.

The Rules
The rules of this game are simple:
 * Players work in pairs.
 * Up to three pairs can compete at a time
 * Each pair of players have to pull a trivia card from a pile and answer a question correctly in order to roll the dice. If they answer incorrectly, players will only get to move up one space, and they will have to move the slave catcher pawn ahead two spaces.
 * If one pair is already in a safe house, the other team will have to take an alternate route.
 * Each time a pair ends up in a safe house, they have to pull a card from the safe house pile. These cards will either award them clothing, food, or the ability to write a letter home. However, these cards can also cause players to lose a turn or go back if they draw injury, poor weather, or "lost the trail" cards.
 * If the slave catcher pawn catches up with any pair of players, that pair gets sent back to the beginning of the board game.
 * Players will have certain choices available to them on safe house cards. The other side of the card will reveal to a player whether or not they have been rewarded for their decision or whether or not they have run into trouble because of it.

Motivational Issues
This game will engage the learner on many levels hopefully. In one regard, students will be interested to see how well they remember the content they were supposed to learn for their test. Games are always a great way to review, so this will provide students a way to go over the information.

One key element of motivation in this game according to Keller and Suzuki's ARCS model is competition. Students are competing not only against the other two pairs, but also against the slave catcher in order to get to Canada. The goal of beating the other teams to freedom will surely motivate students in this game. Moreover, this game also builds upon the notion of confidence. Since this is intended to be a review game, plays would build up confidence since they would be reviewing the very material that they will be tested upon. The more questions that they answer correctly in the game might help a student build up confidence to score well on the test. They could use the game as a reference point possibly when taking the test as well.

Another main element of the ARCS model is choices, and the choice cards that students might pick up in the safe houses bring that element into the game. Students will realize that the decisions they have made in regards to these cards might ultimately affect the outcome of the game.

This game also hopes to tap into the theory of "flow" developed by Csikszentmihalyi. Flow would definitely not be tapped into if I was to have my students play this game before they started to study the Underground Railroad. Competition, fear of being caught by the slave catcher, and fear of drawing a safe house card that might injure their player would keep students on edge. However, if students use this to review content material as intended, I could see them tapping into the flow and becoming absorbed in the game to the point where they might lose a sense of time.

Design Process
Well, I was pretty much forced to come up with an idea for a game since the other teams I asked to join already had too many players or only wanted to work by themselves. Upon reviewing one of my initial ideas for a game, a Lewis and Clark race, I found out that there were too many other games already out there. There are numerous board game versions of a Lewis and Clark race. So, I tried to think f another topic in U.S. History that would allow me to have players race towards something. The first idea I thought of was an underground railroad game.

My initial idea was to have students compete as escaped slaves to get to Canada. After reading one description for a game, I decided to add the element of a slave catcher pawn that would "chase" after slaves during the course of the game.

My honest to goodness first thought when I started to come up with a way to create this board game was, "How the heck am I going to make this board game?" I had never even had the notion to design a board game, so this was a bit of a challenge for me. I figured if I could design some type of picture that I could convert it into a PDF file and then get it enlarged. Once I had done that, I could then glue it onto cardboard to create the board for my game.

My hubby first suggested creating a whole bunch of blocks into an extended S shape, but he didn't suggest anything for the background. I thought if I just created a board with this shape and put a whole bunch of clipart pictures around it that it would look too boring. I wanted to have some type of map on my board so that students would be able to see the route that slaves took on the underground railroad. I first attempted to put the whole east coast on my game. However, when I enlarged the picture it just would not work. In addition, I was going to have the blocks much bigger for it to work.

I then decided to look up the route that Harriet Tubman used to lead slaves to Canada. I found a different map of the east coast and cropped it. I then enlarged it and started to create a route up to Canada using squares based upon the route that Harriet Tubman took. Once I started, it really wasn't too difficult to complete though I almost forgot to include the alternate routes players need to take if another player already occupies a safe house.

I then created my trivia cards and safe house cards on Microsoft Word. Once again, this was not difficult to do either. I used questions from tests I had already created on this content as well as information from the //History Alive- The United States Through Industrialism// textbook to help create the trivia cards.

I was going to test this game with a group of my eighth grade students; however, I realized it would be pointless since they have no knowledge of the Underground Railroad. They would probably be able to answer one of the questions that asks about Harriet Tubman, but they would not have been able to answer others. Therefore, I wouldn't have really been able to have them test elements of the game. Thus, I decided to have my husband test the game with me.

My husband said that he remembered some information about the Underground Railroad, but I wasn't quite sure if he was being honest or not. So we started to play. Right off the bat, I realized that having players answer a trivia card before they would be allowed to move was a bad idea. My husband answered his incorrectly, so he was only able to move ahead one space. And according to my rules he had to move the slave catcher pawn two spaces. Right off the bat, he already had to move back to the beginning.

Once we got into the game, we both became very competitive. He especially liked when he had to draw a safe house card to see whether or not he would be rewarded or if something had happened to the player. However, there didn't seem to be enough opportunities to land on a safe house card.

After we finished the game (I won), I realized I needed to change some of the rules and design of the game. I realized that I should wait until five turns had been taken in order to bring the slave catcher pawn into the game. I also realized that players should just roll the dice in order to start the game. They should not have to answer a question first. If a player answers incorrectly on the first time and only gets to move one spot, it might frustrate him or her and make that person not want to play the game.

Another thing I realized was that I do not have enough safe houses on the game board. Too many times we kept rolling right over those houses and missed them entirely. Thus, we also missed that "chance" element in the game when players had to draw a safe house card. In addition, I never came up with a way to determine who plays first. My husband and I just flipped a coin, but I could see my students arguing, especially since I allow up to three groups to play at a time.

Overall though, I think the game is enjoyable and that my students will like it. My husband loved the competition element and the fact that the slave catcher was after you if you answered a question incorrectly. He also liked landing on a safe house to see whether his player was injured or might give to move ahead to the next safe house.

I think I will take into account next time with game design the fact that maybe players need to build up some type of skills or health before they make it to the finish line. I just had players moving about the game board, trying to get to Canada first. I will be the first to admit that aside from having to take safe house cards, there really wasn't too much excitement involved in the game. Maybe if they had to take into consideration the fact that they also needed to work for some items, it might alter their decision making.

Second, I will make sure that there are different pathways a player can take. I had some different pathways available on my game, but players could only use them if they drew a safe house card that allowed them to move on them. I think I would provide different pathways on my next game but involve some element of danger or risk for players to take them. So even though they might appear faster that the standard route, they could potentially send the player back to the beginning of the game.

Overall, I think this was a good experience for me as a teacher. My kids love playing jeopardy to review for tests, so coming up with an actual concept for a game was great challenge for me.